Bret L. Simmons: Cause, Effect, Time, and Space from Bret Simmons on Vimeo.
When we play as children, problems are never far away from their solutions – as long, at least, as we confine our play to one group of toys. Years later, as managers, we tend to believe that the world works the same way. If there is a problem on the manufacturing line, we look for a cure in manufacturing. If salespeople can’t meet targets, we think we need new sales incentives or promotions. If there is inadequate food, the solution must be more food…. There is a fundamental mismatch between the nature of reality in complex systems and our predominant ways of thinking about that reality. The first step in correcting that mismatch is to let go of the notion that cause and effect are close in time and space. (p. 63)
Whenever I talk about systems thinking, I am usually thinking about the idea that cause and effect are not closely related in time and space. This is the next systems thinking principle from Peter Senge’s classic book, “The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of The Learning Organization.”
Because we’ve been conditioned to treat problems like snapshots, most of us search for proximal causes when effects hit our radar screen. And thanks to the power of the fundamental attribution error, we usually blame the person nearest the fire when flames erupt. Very convenient, but not very effective.
The real leverage lies in fixing systems, not in blaming people. As Bob Sutton and Jeff Pfeffer correctly point out, “the law of crappy systems trumps the law of crappy people.”
Unless you find and address the root causes of your problems, you will be forced to deal with the manifestations of those causes over and over again. Yet because the root causes are often distal, it’s very difficult to see how seemingly unrelated effects were driven by the same underlying systemic factors. Difficult indeed, but absolutely essential.
A lot is made of leadership and “the vision thing.” I think that is overrated. The most important big picture view the effective leader needs to have the ability to comprehend is the one in the rear-view mirror.
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This is an insightful remark: “If there is inadequate food, the solution must be more food”
It’s really hard to get our minds around problems when there is a significant time lag between cause and effect. For one thing, it gives space for a lot of other factors to also change making it difficult to isolate the specific cause of the effect we’re seeing.
Parenting has this problem. We don’t really know how our actions will affect our children until years later.
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
April 19th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
Welcome, Siddhartha! Glad you brought up the time lag because while I did not emphasize it, it is very significant. Very insightful comment – thanks! Bret
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